God is...

Before me,
Even as behind,
God is,
And all is well...
~Whittier

celebrate the Sabbath...with baptism...

What a great way to spend the Sabbath! I was honored to spend today with friends and to join with them in the celebration of baptism! My friends' two oldest boys --ages 9 and 7-- and their two cousins from back east, and one adult friend of my friends all were baptized today!


There were about 30 or so friends and family members who gathered at the beach for the baptisms.... we started it off with an explanation of what baptism is-- symbolically joining Christ in His death and resurrection and bublically proclaiming to the world (and all those near us at the beach!) of one's decision to follow Christ, prayer, and then each of those being baptized waded into the water.

Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. ~Romans 6:3-4

Each one proclaimed his or her decision for Christ and was baptised there in the ocean... buried with Christ and risen to a new life.

(no, the bird was not baptised!)

After the baptisms, we all played at the beach for an hour or so and then went to a friend's house for bbq'd ribs and chocolate cake! What joy to celebrate life in Christ on the Sabbath!

You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. ~Galatians 3:26-27

a quiet beach...in Michigan??

Whenever I go to visit my family in Michigan, I seem to have to see at least one of the Great Lakes. Maybe it's because I'm so used to living by the ocean... or maybe I just really like giant bodies of water across which one cannot see land. I usually end up taking a day trip drive with someone (most times my mom) to see Lake Michigan. (on my most recent trip I made it to the Lake twice!! and I accidently called it the ocean at least once--and was laughed at by my niece!)

On one visit, my mom and I drove to the lakeside city of Grand Haven. (I called it a coastal city and was once again laughed at by my niece!) Grand Haven is a wonderful little city that has a lighthouse that you can walk out to on a long cement walkway. If you squint and look through the sea wheat (or beach grass, or whatever it's called!) in the picture below, on the right side, you can see the lighthouse beacon tower at the far right, and a bit to the left of it, the little 'house' part of the lighthouse. (they're both bright red)

After photographing the scene above, I looked a bit further to the right, and what...?!!

Wait a minute!! I thought I was in Michigan!!

What the heck is THAT tree doing there?!?

Yes, THAT one!

The one with the fluffy green fronds instead of leaves!!

It IS a palm tree!

And I was being laughed at for calling it the coast and the ocean??

Hmmmm.

I had to investigate this strange appearance of a tropical tree growing on a beach in the Midwest...

Well, a palm tree it was indeed.

A REAL palm tree it was not.

But, someone was sure enjoying their tropical view

of Lake Michigan!

I enjoyed their creativity,

and definitely delighted in their sense of humor!

Whatever it takes to get that warm tropical feeling ...

You just gotta love it...

a masterpiece of nature...

A friend may well be reckoned

the masterpiece of nature.

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

pure joy...

This was part of MY Saturday...

I hope yours was at least 1/8 this good!

~ wonder ~

If a child is to keep alive his inborn

sense of wonder...
he needs the companionship
of at least one adult who can share it,
rediscovering with him the joy,
excitement, and mystery
of the world we live in.

~Rachel Carson

~excitement~

~ pure joy ~

collecting shells...

It is perhaps a more fortunate destiny to have a taste for collecting shells than to be born a millionaire.

~Robert Louis Stevenson

wild (weird?) and wonderful...

On my recent trip to the Central coast of California, we stopped at one of my very favorite places--a little town called Cambria. Actually, my favorite part of Cambria is Moonstone Beach. It is a wonderful stretch of beach with continuous wave song and several miles of boardwalk as well as the beach itself to walk on. The sand is not really even sand but bazillions (I don't know a higher number!) of teeny tiny stones. The beach has been a rock collector's, treasure hunter's dream for me! Most of the stones are rounded and smooth, unlike any other place I've found, and there are quite wonderful colors --but with a predominance of glorious jade-green colored stones.

This time, however, was quite different. As with most beaches, the beach itself can change drastically from visit to visit --shape, height of tide, condition of the beach. This time the great areas of larger stones which usually keep me occupied for hours (as I sit in the middle of a pile and dig through the layers looking for special and unique stones) were not there. The beach was mostly just the teeny tiny "sand" stones.

We did, however, get to see something a bit wild and weird and, I thought, quite wonderful...

Hmmmmm... Check these out! There were many, many of these little objects strewn across the beach right at the water line where the waves had dropped them.
Animal? Vegetable? Mineral? The sun was striking them so that they appeared to be glowing from within. They were quite beautiful, and I liked to imagine that they were many glowing moonstones on the beach.

But, no... Mineral, they were not. And, upon closer look and a bit of curious poking, I determined that neither were they Vegetable...

I had seen these things before, but not in such abundance. They actually are Animal... a type of jellyfish. They do not have tentacles, and I believe they are a much less developed jelly (a lower life form) than what we're used to seeing.
If you poke them (which, I, of course, HAD to do!), they are very firm, like a piece of hard but pliable rubber. They're not gooey or slimey but smooth and cool. And, if you look closely at them, they've got lovely striations running through them... (the following two and the flower one you can double click on and look at them up really close! they're really quite amazing!!)

(you can also see what I was talking about in regards to the "sand" on this beach)

I think the one below looks sort of like a seashell in shape...

And this one was very cool! It was very 3dimensional and looked sort of like a big blobby bulbous flower of some sort! It even has a few streaks of a pinkish-purple color running through it. (unfortunately, Blogger is turning some of my photos; this one and the following one are sideways)

For all you Heart lovers and seekers, check this out... (imagine it turned 90degrees counter clockwise!)....

And the final one ... obviously a treasure just for ME!!.... (ok, I'll share it with you!)

God has such a great sense of humor, don't you think?! Not only does He create such wild and weird stuff, He dredges it up from the deep, tosses it onto the beach, and gives us a little art show with it! And wraps it all up with LOVE.... Ah, He does delight my heart...

a whole lot of lying around...

...and so, with this last post about the seals, I share with you what they do a whole lot of while they're on the beach... in between fighting, birthing babies, taking care of pups, defending turf, flipping sand, and occasionally chasing away a male challenger, there is a whole lot of 'down time' to conserve energy... in other words--lying around.

This, actually, is pretty much what I looked like most of the day today...ahhhhh...Saturdays!

And, now and then, in between naps, there is a bit of this--very entertaining traveling across the beach. I like to call it "galumphing," and it never ceases to cause me to smile!

Then, there MUST be more of this...

...don't know about you, but this little pup's all ready for some more nappage...

* * YAWN!! * *

And, with that happy ending, I shall make tracks... er, take my leave...

(I couldn't resist this wonderful set of tracks made by one of the alpha males!)

all this talk about elephant seals..

I appreciate all of you who have hung in here with me while I rave on about the elephant seals. It was such a great time being there with them--watching, listening, laughing...it's hard NOT to share it!

This area where the seals 'hang out' is about 5 hours north of where I live--up in a little coastal town called San Simeon. There is a beach area with a little bit of a cliff type terrain, and that beach is where they migrate each year from Alaska to do their birthing, mating, and molting. There are always some seals there throughout the year long, but the age groups and purposes change depending upon the time of year.

In October and November the adolescent males (3-5yrs) are on the beach. They mock fight and practice their moves until December when the Big Boys arrive and haul themselves up onto the beach. The Big Boys (at 4-5,000 lbs each!) move in and stake their claim to an area of the beach (by fighting off other males) and await the arrival of the females. When the females arrive --many of them pregnant-- the Big Boys each assemble their own harem of about 30-40 females and then keep all other males at a safe distance away. Because they do not eat the entire time they are here (3 1/2-4 mos), they generally lose up to 40% of their body weight by the time they hit the sea again.

Usually the females have their babies from about the end of December through the beginning of February. They then spend their time feeding and caring for their pups until they are weaned at about 6 weeks old. Once the pups are weaned (and the females have mated with their bull), the moms leave the beach, and the pups stay to teach themselves how to swim.There is so much going on down on the beach during this time of year! I watched for three hours straight each day I was there, and the time just flew by! The moms feed and talk to the pups and yell at each other; the bulls bellow at and chase each other; the pups wriggle and crawl and yelp and squawk;the bulls mate with the females; and all of them (even the newborn pups!) are continually flipping sand onto their backs to cool themselves in the warm sun.



And then, there's a whole lot of puppy love going on...

How many are your works, O LORD! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures. ~ Psalm 104:24